Endpoint Sobolev theory for the Muskat equation (Q2684869)

The authors assume that the interface between two 2D fluids is a graph of the form \(\Sigma (t)=\{(x,y)\in \mathbb{R}\times \mathbb{R}\); \(y=f(t,x)\}\), \(t\geq 0\), the evolution equation of the free surface elevation \(f\) being written according to the formulation proposed by \textit{D. Córdoba} and \textit{F. Gancedo} [Commun. Math. Phys. 273, No. 2, 445--471 (2007; Zbl 1120.76064)] as the Muskat equation \(\partial_{t}f=\frac{1}{\pi}pv\int_{\mathbb{R}} \frac{\partial_{x}\Delta_{\alpha}f}{1+(\Delta_{\alpha}f)^{2}}d\alpha\), where \(pv\) denotes a principal value integral and \(\Delta_{\alpha}f(t,x)= \frac{f(t,x)-f(t,x-\alpha)}{\alpha}\). The main result of the paper proves that for any initial data \(f_{0}\) in \(H^{\frac{3}{2}}(\mathbb{R})\), there exists a time \(T>0\) such that the Cauchy problem associated to the Muskat equation has a unique solution \(f\) in the space \(X^{\frac{3}{2}}(T)=\{f\in C^{0}[0,T];H^{\frac{3}{2}}(\mathbb{R})\); \(\int_{0}^{T}\int_{\mathbb{R}}\frac{ (\partial_{xx}f)^{2}}{1+(\partial_{x}f)^{2}}dxdt<\infty \}\). Moreover, the authors prove the existence of a positive constant \(\varepsilon_{0}\) such that, for any initial data \(f_{0}\in H^{\frac{3}{2}}(\mathbb{R})\) satisfying \(\|f_{0}\|_{\dot{H}^{\frac{3}{2}}}\leq \varepsilon_{0}\), this Cauchy problem has a unique global solution \(f\) in \(X^{\frac{3}{2}}(+\infty)\). Here \(\|u\|_{\dot{H}^{\sigma}}= \frac{1}{2\pi}\int_{\mathbb{R}}|\xi |^{2\sigma}|\widehat{u}(\xi)|^{2}d\xi\), where \(\widehat{u}\) is the Fourier transform of \(u\). A key step of the proof consists to verify the inequality \(\frac{d}{dt}\|f\|_{\dot{H}^{\frac{3}{2}}}+\int_{\mathbb{R}}\frac{(\partial_{xx}f)^{2}}{1+(\partial_{x}f)^{2}} dx\lesssim (\|f\|_{\dot{H}^{\frac{3}{2}}}+\|f\|_{\dot{H}^{\frac{3}{2}}}^{2})\|f\|_{\dot{H}^{2}}\), without imposing further hypotheses on the initial data \(f_{0}\). The authors here analyze the null-type structure associated to the Muskat equation, using Minkowski's inequality, Riesz potentials, Hilbert transform, Triebel-Lizorkin spaces, and their properties. The authors recall properties of weighted fractional Laplacians they introduced in their previous works and they define the notion of admissible weight \(\kappa\) involved in special functions \(\phi :[0,\infty)\rightarrow \lbrack 1,\infty)\) defined as \(\phi (\lambda)=\int_{0}^{\infty}\frac{1-\cos(h)}{h^{2}}\kappa (\frac{\lambda}{h})dh\), for \(\lambda \geq 0\). They prove that for all \(f_{0}\) in \(H^{\frac{3}{2}}( \mathbb{R})\), there exists an admissible weight \(\kappa\) satisfying \(\lim_{r\rightarrow +\infty}\kappa (r)=\infty\) and such that \(f_{0}\) belongs to \(\mathcal{H}^{\frac{3}{2},\phi}(\mathbb{R})=\{f\in L^{2}(\mathbb{R}):|D|^{s,\phi}f\in L^{2}(\mathbb{R})\}\), where \(|D|^{s,\phi}\) is the Fourier multiplier with symbol \(|\xi |^{s}\phi (|\xi |)\), and an existence result for the Cauchy problem associated to the Muskat problem in this framework.